ROADTRIP
by Loreal
Summary: Jordan is given an assignment that sends her from Boston to NYC. What will she find when she gets there, and is this case as difficult as it first apears to be?


ROAD TRIP  
BY: LML  
  
Disclaimer:  
I don't own the main characters of the TV show Crossing Jordan. NBC, the cast,   
producers, writers, and creaters of the show own the rights. I'm just borrowing them for a short while so I might write a little fanfic that I think might be neat to read.  
  
Notes:  
I'm not entirely sure where this story sits during this first season of the show. I believe it could very well be set just before the episode in which Jordan helps to rescue a kidnapped child, only because it mentions the character of Evalynn. I can't be one-hundred-percent certain that it would best fit here, but this is the best spot for it at the present. Unless, by some act of the writers Evalynn's character makes a reappearance, this is where it would most likely fit in with the timeline. However, wherever it is placed, that is to say however well it may fit in to the storyline of the show itself, I hope it's a good one! I'm very critical of my own work and it's time for others to review it too! Please, I could really use them!  
  
Send all comments to llavigna@nycap.rr.com or click on the link to my profile.   
You'll find the same email address there as well. Enjoy the story!  
  
  
Roadtrip  
  
Chapter one:  
The Assignment  
  
  
"Dr. Cavanaugh, Dr. Macy needs to speak with you right away." The young freshfaced part-time intern jogged over to the tall, vibrant woman standing inside the doorway of her office. Lily had been out with the flu for several days, and there had been a need for temporary services while in her absence. So, Jenny McLeary had been brought in to help out with the work load. Jordan didn't particularly dislike the very lively woman, but she was just a little too perky for Jordan's liking. And besides, there were times when she could be quite a flake. But, nevertheless, Jordan had decided not to judge the younger woman based solely on her personality, but rather on her work ethic.  
  
"Why, Jenny, what's Garett need me for?" She smiled at the intern, who had a very wide and very child-like grin on her face. It was one of those grins which never seemed to disappear but rather remained constantly plastered to the girl's face even if there was nothing to be smiling about.  
  
"I really don't know, Dr. Cavanaugh. Dr. Macy just asked me to find you and send you to his office right away."  
  
Jordan Cavanaugh, thirty-two years of age, single, and currently working as a Medical Examiner for the city of Boston, sighed softly as she moved from the comfortable perch made by the doorway of her office. She figured she'd just as well go and see what Garit wanted now, rather than wait and have him chew her out for it later.  
  
She sauntered out of the doorway, walking past several of her coworkers as she went. Some of them were very familiar to her, while others weren't so familiar. Although she'd been away for a couple of years, things hadn't changed too much around this old place. But her father had changed, very much so and not to Jordan's liking. Now it had been nearly two months since her untimely and very unplanned arrival here in Boston, and she'd met her father's new girlfriend, Evalynn. But to say the least, the two women had not started out very well. Jordan didn't dislike Evalynn at first, but her feelings toward the woman changed when she made a few comments about Jordan's work and the living situation at the house when Jordan had first returned from Los Angeles.  
  
She thought about this as she stroled lazily toward Garett macy's office. He undoubtedly had another case for her, and she was bound and determined, as always, to find out the true motives behind each and every mysterious case which came her way. In a way, she supposed, they were kind of like the unsolved murder of her mother who had been gone for twenty-two years. Jordan had been ten at the time, and her mother's death had shattered the safe, comfortable world she'd grown up knowing. Not long after her mother's death, Jordan would begin a tradition with her father, Max Cavanaugh, a tradition which would continue to this date and beyond.  
  
"Hey, Jordan, how are you this morning?"  
  
Jordan's thoughts were interrupted by the semicheerful voice of her boss and friend. He'd seen her coming and had stepped out of his office to meet her. He extended a cup of steaming coffee out to her, and she took it greatfully. She sipped the hot liquid, relishing the feel as it slid down her very dry and very sore throat.  
  
"Morning, Garett, what's going on? The new intern Jenny said you needed me for something urgent. What's up?"  
  
Garett Macy, middle-aged, father to one seventeen-year old wild angel of a daughter, looked at the woman he'd known for so many interesting years. Before allowing his thoughts to wander he said quickly, "Jordan, we have a little problem on our hands. It seems that a case our office handled about two weeks ago looks very similar to a murder case in New York."  
  
"So why call me in on it? You know that the Powers that Be don't want me doing any "real work" around here. Or have you forgotten what was told to me at the first staff meeting I attended since I returned from LA? I was told to "find a case and observe" to put it succinctly. Yucura really doesn't like me, and you know that."  
  
"I know, Jordan, but now those Powers that Be are very worried about a possible lawsuit for not picking this up. Yucura's on the fence here, and she specifically brought your name up. Now, Dr. Isler handled the case when it originally came in two weeks ago, and since then she's been bogged down with more than enough back work to send her in to the year 3000. They want you to handle it, Jordan, and more importantly, they need you to go to New York and deal with this head on."  
  
Jordan held back her immediate response, but instead she replied with, "All right, Garett. I'll go to New York. Just give me the when and where."  
  
Garett smiled slightly at Jordan and held a filefolder out to her. She shifted the hot coffee in to her other hand, and took the folder from her friend. Flipping it open, she handed her coffee to Garett and began reading aloud.  
  
"Stephanie Fletcher, seventeen, caucasion female... Cause of death appears to be a drug overdose, final ruling was that she committed suicide..." She lifted her head from the bend position of reading and stared at Garett. "All right, spill.   
This girl committed suicide. Why is it connected to a case in New York?"  
  
"Jordan, another young caucasion girl same age as Stephanie Fletcher, dies under the same circumstances. Now ordinarily this would not be something we put a red flag on around here, but when we receive calls from the local authorities requesting information on the young lady's death, we start wondering if maybe we've got a problem on our hands. That's where you come in. You're set to leave for New York this afternoon."  
  
"Great, maybe I'll catch a show tonight... I mean Broadway's right there..." Jordan smiled at her friend. It had been a long time since she'd seen him like this. But she was ready to take up the responsibility and handle whatever came her wy. "Okay then." Jordan quickly flipped through the folder in her hand and glanced up at her friend and boss. "Garet, there's no report on file from New York City. What kind of information do we have on this other girl other than their word?"  
  
"Not much I'm afraid. They were supposed to have the report in by this morning, but I guess the lines of communication got crossed or something. They told us it would be in by tomorrow, but by then you'll already have gotten there. All we know is her name and age. Seems to be the only connection that we know of on this end. The girl's name is Lisa Hansen, and she's seventeen. From what I got out of the police up there, she died about a week ago."  
  
Jordan gave him a half smile and closed the filefolder. "All right. See you when I get back." She turned and ehaded out in the direction of the main exit and her car in the parking lot. Her first stop would be to see Eddie Winslow, one of Boston's finest. If she didn't get any answers form him, then she knew she could always go to see Lois Carver.  
  
After managing to find a parking space, Jordan headed into the station intent on tracking down the former of her two friends and colleagues. She knew that of the two, Lois was more apt to help her in her search for aditional information on the Boston case, but she didn't discount Eddie as a wealth of knowledge jsut yet either. He'd been very helpful in the past, and no doubt would continue to be of such assistance so long as it didn't cost him his badge. She finally found him sitting at his desk filling out one of an entire stack of forms which looked to be at least four inches high or better.  
  
After she explained the particulars of the case, those she had gathered from the file she caried tucked under an arm, Eddie winslow shook his head and frowned. "Sorry, Jordan, but I can't help you out with this one. I didn't handle it, but I know who did. And you're not going to be able to do business with him."  
  
"And just why not may I ask? What, does he have some problem with a Medical Examiner asking questions about one of his cases?"  
  
"No, but I can tell you what he'll tell you right now before you go barkin up the wrong tree. He'll give you this stern look and say point blank: '"I'm sorry, Dr. Cavanaugh, but everything that I know was in my report."  
  
Jordan thanked Eddie for the information, and seeing that neither he nor Lois would be able to help her she exited the precinct and back to her car. She headed back to the office to see if she could dig up some other information there, but even Dr. Isler was of no assistance.  
  
Two hours later, Jordan jogged in to her father's living room, seated herself on   
the couch, and dropped her head in to her hands. She'd just finished up the   
paperwork at the office, and had been sent back home to pack a bag for an   
indefinite amount of time. Now it was time for her to do just that. Having   
finished the laundry the night before, she'd brought it al in the living room so   
she could get everything together and look over the file a little bit. She knew that her father and Evalynn were out for the morning, and she knew that if Evalynn came home and saw her with the files sitting on the couch, she would be unceremoniously tossed out of her father's house. Evalynn seriously disliked the fact that Jordan had come back to Boston as a Medical Examiner, and more so the fact that she was constantly asking her father to run through cases with her to learn the truth of why each person died. Why couldn't her father have picked someone other than Evalynn? Someone with a better sense of style, more compassion, nicer attitude... Jordan just couldn't seem to grasp the idea of her father, someone who was one of the most charismatic and level-headed individuals that she knew of, see anything in a woman who was constantly trying to drive a wedge between father and daughter.  
  
Almost as if on cue, Evalynn breezed in to the house, arms loaded with bags of what were probably groceries. "Oh great," Jordan thought, "I'm gonna catch hell now."  
  
Jordan quickly concealed the files beneath a large stack of clothing that lay beside her, all of which had been neatly folded. However, this action didn't go unnoticed by Evalynn who had already placed her bags in the kitchen. She strolled over to Jordan, and seated herself on the couch, staring hard at Jordan.  
  
"You know how I feel about you bringing that horrible work of yours in to this house." She punctuated the last few words by shaking her finger at the pile of neatly folded laundry and the affliction hidden beneath. She glared intensely at Jordan who just stood from her seat, picked up her laundry and the files she'd brought along, and turned to leave.  
  
"Well, in that case," Jordan began curtly. "You'll be happy to know that my office has requested that I leave this afternoon to extend my services to the Medical Examiners' office In New York City. So, you won't have to worry about me, or my horrible work, bothering you fora few days."  
  
Jordan headed for the door, and was almost out when she heard Evalynn say, "I've told you time and again, that I have a serious dislike of your work coming in to this house, and furthermore, I really don't like how it upsets your father. He was a cop, Jordan, but he's retired now. Why can't you just let him enjoy his retirement, instead of constantly pestering him to help you do your job? If you wish to continue coming here as you please, I would appreciate it if you would leave your work behind."  
  
"You know something?" Jordan turned around abruptly so she could look Evalynn straight in the eye. "I think that since I'm not welcome here as long as I'm involved in my work, I'll just call my father to let him know where I've gone. I'd stick around to tell him all of this in person, but as you've pointed out I make you very uncomfortable. And I wouldn't want to give you any more of a reason to dislike me." And with that, she left the house and headed for the airport.  
  
Within an hour, Jordan was in the airport, waiting patiently for her flight to be announced. While she sat in one of the chairs in the lounge, she had begun to read over the file on Stephanie Fletcher more thoroughly than earlier. She began to uncover the last few hours of this girl's life, according to the report which Dr. Isler had recorded. That, compiled with the police report, told Jordan all the basic facts which previously indicated that Stephanie's death had been a suicide. But what was so incredibly unusual, however, was the fact that there was no report supplied to them by the NYPD on their victim. With no report on the girl from New York, Jordan would just be forced to sit and wait until she reached her destination.  
  
"Final boarding call for flight 83; Boston to New York City."  
  
Jordan stood up, grabbed the file and her carry-on luggage, and made a mad dash for the terminal. Suddenly, she collided with a smaller mass, one which yelped in pain and fell upon impact with the woman Medical Examiner. Jordan quickly looked down at the floor, seeing a young girl trying to get to her feet.  
  
"I am so sorry! Are you all right, sweetheart? Here; let me help you up." Reaching down, she offered a hand to the girl who took it and pulled herself to her feet.  
  
"I'm okay, just running a bit late for my flight is all. I'm not sure if I'm heading in the right direction though. I need to get to the flight leaving for New York."  
  
Jordan let go of the girl's hand and pointed. "Come on. I'm going to the same gate. If you'd like, I'll take you down there."  
  
Smiling, the young girl said, "Thanks. By the way I'm really sorry for running into you like that! Are you all right, Ma'am?"  
  
"Yes I am, and the name's Jordan. The only person who calls me "ma'am" is an old friend of my father's who was in the Army. What's your name?""  
  
"I'm Katie... Katie Hansen. I don't live here, but I was just visiting my dad. He and my mom split three years ago, and my sister and I live in NYC with our mother."  
  
As she spoke, both she and Jordan began jogging toward the gate. As they approached the flight attendant, she gave them a quick glance and smiled. "Just in time, you two. You almost missed your flight. May I see your boarding passes, please?"  
  
"Jordan handed over hers, while Katie began digging in her pocket. Finally coming up with the boarding pass, she handed it over for inspection. When the woman had examined them thoroughly she nodded and waved her hand in the direction of the plane.  
  
"Come on, kid, time to make our flight. Where are you sitting, anyway?" Jordan said as she guided Katie on to the aircraft.  
  
"Uh just a sec, let me see. I wrote the number down so I wouldn't forget it. I'm sitting in..." Katie reached in her pocket again and came up with a piece of paper with a number which had been hastily written down. "Seat 24B."  
  
Jordan almost dropped her bag as she looked at her seat number. Hers read "seat 24C." "Well," Jordan said, "I guess it's a good thing we bumped into each other. Looks like we're sitting together. You don't mind, do you?"  
  
"Just so long as you don't mind being stuck next to a kid all the way to New York." Katie grinned at Jordan, revealing a mouthful of sparkling white teeth. She began inspecting the numbers until she came to the aisle where she and Jordan were supposed to be seated. Jordan slid in first, but then thought better of it and stepped back out in the aisle.  
  
"Tell you what. Why don't you take the window seat? I like the view, but I've seen it a hundred times."  
  
"Wow, thanks! You're better than the last seat partner I had when I flew out here." Katie slid in the seat and Jordan followed suit.  
  
"Oh yeah, how bad was he?"  
  
"He was a grouchy, old guy who got really mad when I looked over his shoulder to stare out the window. Said I was being a pest and making a nuisance of myself. That and he couldn't understand why anyone would let a young kid like me fly alone in the first place."  
  
"People can be like that sometimes. It's just that they get set in their ways and don't want to change for anything or anybody. By the way, if you don't mind me asking, just exactly how old are you anyway?" Jordan glanced at the girl seated next to her. The look of her suggested her age to be in the proximity of twelve or thirteen, but Jordan knew full well that she could hav easily been older or younger. Sometimes kids didn't look their age at all.  
  
"I'm fourteen. My sister Lisa is seventeen. But she doesn't come out here with me to see my dad though. She's got a different father, but he doesn't want to see her. So, it's just Mom, Lisa, and me."  
  
Jordan recognized the name instantly as being that of the victim from NYPD case she'd been sent out to assist with. Jordan thouhgt for a moment, trying to rationalize the girl's name, and that of the dead girl in New York. The way Jordan saw things it could be worked out in two different ways... Either the girls weren't related at all, or they were related which made Jordan's job more difficult. On one hand, Hansen was a very common name, probably the last name of hundreds of people across the country. But on the other hand, the odds that this girl's last name being Hansen, compunded with those that she'd have an older sister named Lisa were just too coincidental for Jordan's liking. Jordan concluded that the girls were related, and she'd just met one of the victim's family. But obviously the younger sister had no known knowledge of the death, and Jordan didn't feel that it was her place to say anything. She wondered though, why Katie's mother hadn't told her about Lisa's death, but again it wasn't her place to question or to say a word about what she knew.  
  
"That's great though! You've got an older sister. See now when I was your age it was just my dad and me. We lived in Boston, but once I graduated from high school and headed off to college, things just changed for everyone. We had our own lives, and got to see each other on a regular basis, but we both were pretty busy all the time."  
  
"What do you do for a living?" Katie asked with curiosity written all over her face. She really liked this woman's personality. "You don't mind me asking do you, Jordan?"  
  
"I'm a Medical Examiner." Jordan smiled and settled back in her seat just as the pilot began speaking to the passengers.  
  
Jordan listened half-heartedly, having already heard this speech half a dozen times in the last three years alone. She noticed that Katie was trying to pay attention to the pilot's instructions on what to do should there be turbulence or should they be forced to make a crashlanding, but the girl's eyes traveled curiously up and down the aisle. Jordan could tell that the girl was nervous, and guessed that this was probably her second time on an airplane. Deciding to try and help ease Katie's nervousness Jordan asked, "So, Katie, how long have you been out here in Boston visiting your father?"  
  
"About a month. I'm home-schooled, and my dad has an order for visitation or something that says he can take me for an extended visit if he chooses. Mom's not too keen about it, but at least I get to see what it's like to travel. Before Dad moved out here it was just weekend visits and a couple of overnight visits during the week whenever Mom had to work late or something. At least that's what they said to me. Adults have a way of keeping quiet when they don't want kids to know something."  
  
Jordan smiled and laughed. It was true, what Katie said. She knew that when her mother had been murdered, there were a lot of things that the adults had tried to keep from her, especially her grandmother. All the sleepless nights she spend at Kim's house, and then when her grandmother had fought to try to take her from her father had raised the alarms in her head. It bothered her that they hadn't as of yet even been able to come up with anything on her mother's murder. It bothered her more than she cared to say, but she wasn't willing to let go of the fear, not yet.  
  
TO BE CONTINUED! 


End file.
